How to Get More Creative to Boost Your Profits

I’ve told you before that the more ideas you create, the more customers you can connect to.

Why does GEICO have 25 different ad campaigns that are completely different from each other? Well, number one, it’s a commodity. It’s insurance, so they have to stand out, so they need really different ads that are going to grab your attention. That’s one reason why their ads are the way they are, but they do so many different kinds of ads because they know not everybody’s going to like the gecko, not everybody’s going to like the caveman, not everybody’s going to like those folk guitar guys.

Every ad they put out there is a chance that if they didn’t connect with you with the other ad, you’re going to like this new one.

I think it’s brilliant, because so many companies for decades have just done one ad campaign. If you didn’t like that, wow. Okay. Well, that company’s kind of out of luck for that customer. They didn’t connect with them.

I’ve told you too, that with digital marketing, the more ideas you create the more likely you are to find that outlier, that super performer, that Michael Jordan of ads or posts that’s going to really excite your customer and get you better results, and better profits, and all that stuff.

Draw From Stuff In Your Everyday Life

You have to create more stuff, but people say, “You know what? I’m not that creative,” and “How do I create more ideas?” Brainstorming is very important. Getting in a room with some people where you have the rule that no ideas are bad. Let’s create some great ideas. Pulling ideas from other things. I created a video of myself that’s a version of the intro to The Arrow, which is a TV series on Netflix. It’s like a hero’s journey sort of video, and I’m like, “What if I was a hero,” and I create a video like that. You can pull things in from other places.

Another thing you could do, I learned from screenwriting, I took like two years of screenwriting classes, I do this because I’m interested in these things, but also because I want to be able to pull things in to marketing and advertising for my clients and for myself.

One of the things I learned in screenwriting from this great guy, Corey Mandell, who’s worked with a ton of really successful screenwriters, and he’s worked with Ridley Scott, and all these guys, he has this concept he pulled from a guy. He wrote this huge book on creativity. Wish I could remember the guy’s name (it’s Arthur Koestler), but he had this concept called bisocation.

The idea is like, Lethal Weapon, who are the last two guys you’d put together? The crazy guy that wants to kill himself and the old guy that’s just about to retire, who’s really conservative. Put together the last two things you’d expect to go together, because creativity is just two old ideas combined in a new way. You can put together a bracelet and medical devices, and you’ve got Fitbit. You never thought those would go together. You could put a sports car and a hybrid, or electric car together. Normally you would think you need a Mustang with this huge gas engine, but now you’ve got the Tesla, and people go crazy for it.

Combine Things That Don’t Belong Together

Connect ideas that you don’t think would go together normally.

Figure out what’s unique about your company, or your industry, or your customer, and then pull in the last thing you would expect. I’ve got this character I’ve been working on who’s a redneck, because I’m in digital marketing which is a really, really smart area, so I’m going to pull in the dumbest thing I can think up, which a redneck.

“I got facial hair on my back.”

I’m still figuring out how to use him, but by association in a way is the most creative thing.

If creativity is two old ideas combined in a new way, then the ideas you’d least expect to go together would be the most creative. Try that. Bisociation.

Just make a list. Here are some things we think about our product, and our company. What are the opposite? What are the most different things from that? Things you would never expect to go with that. Try that. Try bisociation.

Pull something in that you wouldn’t think would normally be associated with your company, or your product, and see if that works for you.

That’s just another way to come up with new ideas for your content, or for your ads.